You’ve chosen an ethical online marketing agency most suitable for you in every respect, you’ve signed the contract and now all you have to do is start working together? To make sure that the collaboration goes smoothly and efficiently from the very first moment, we have a few tips for you to consider before the first brief and during the long lasting collaboration.
0. Have a Brief!
Whether it’s Facebook or Instagram content, PPC ads, complex marketing or a complete strategy, a precise and well-written brief can save both parties a lot of time and energy. Send past materials, dreams and visions, or any marketing material that resonates with you and your company profile for some reason. A good creative online marketing agency will ask good questions, and even if you think you have no ideas at the beginning, they can help you articulate what you really want to work together on and materials. It’s important that the professionals know what your expectations are, otherwise they will fly completely blind during implementation. Here you will find a good guide to briefing.
1. Provide all available material to the marketing agency
Do you have a ready-made design book, created by a great graphic designer, especially for your business? Of course, we will use it as a basis! Do you have a marketing strategy, previous experience, lots of ideas? Your marketing agency will want to hear all about it, but if you’re just starting your company’s online marketing journey, don’t worry – creative agencies live and die for the chance to put their ideas into action.
For a good agency, the client always comes first, so they’ll welcome everything from the most complex materials to the smallest details, and incorporate as many ideas as possible to ensure that the communication is natural and perfectly in line with your company profile. Whether it’s a few colours, specific fonts, images or graphic elements, a good professional will find a way to ensure that the end result is harmonious and fits the profile.
To help you, here’s a short but all the more important list of documents to send to your agency when you start working together:
- Logo (large size, without background, in .png, .psd or .ai format)
- Other colour versions of the logo
- Logo manual, logo colours
- Product photos, renders
- Other copyright photos in your possession
Your company is brand new and you don’t have any previous material? No problem! Work with your creative or online marketing agency to develop a corporate identity and communication style that best suits you and your target audience. It will be an exciting collaboration!
2. There is no such thing as a verbal brief
You’ve just come from a team meeting and you’ve gathered so many great ideas for online marketing that you’d rather pick up the phone and tell agencies down to the last detail what banner ads, CTAs and copy variations you’d like to test for your next campaign?
As great as it sounds, we definitely wouldn’t recommend it. Think about it: the person you’re calling is probably immersed in another workflow, so you might disrupt their flow, and they won’t be able to fully engage with you in the conversation because their mind is elsewhere.
Also, remember: spoken word gets lost, but writing stays – and this is especially true for phone calls. A well-written letter is not only clearer, but will be opened by the creative or marketing agency when they can concentrate on the work process in a calm and focused way, and can be retrieved months later. Fewer misunderstandings, less information lost, more accurate work.
3. Let go of the online marketing agency’s hand!
Do you like what they’ve created, but want to make the logo bigger in one of the images? Too little text on the Facebook banner, would you prefer to centre the text; good colour choice but change the shade? Is the text on the landing page too much or too little, or does the CTA on a red background in the newsletter not fit the company image?
A marketing agency has several professionals working on the same material (strategist, account, copywriter, graphic designer, ppc, etc.), whose work is not always easy to see. The key is to maintain trust and (in the case of creative work) creative freedom. A good graphic designer will know exactly what a Facebook banner should contain a maximum of 20% text, which colour shades create the perfect harmony, or which colours your customers are most likely to click on. A professional who manages ads knows how many characters a headline can be and which call-to-action keywords are most likely to be clicked on, even if you’d prefer to phrase it differently. Remember, you are not doing the communication for yourself, but for your target audience! The most important thing is not that you like it, but that your users and customers respond positively to it.
If you have given good instructions to the creative or online marketing agency, briefed them well, then don’t worry. You will be happy with the result. Trust the expertise of your agency and if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask!
